Johnson initially tried to get the entire team on board with the game-within-a-game, but only the 25-year-old starter has stuck with it.

"When you commit to something as serious as this, you have to ride it out through the good and the bad," Sale said. "We had said that we were going to do it every start this year. In a sense, me and Bryan are on a team now, and I can't let my team down. I have two teams to play for a night."